


Intervention

by Crayen



Category: Borderlands (Video Games)
Genre: Fluff, Hugs, Kinda angsty but mostly soft, M/M, Mustache Rhys
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-02
Updated: 2019-04-02
Packaged: 2020-01-01 07:49:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,106
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18331754
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crayen/pseuds/Crayen
Summary: Rhys grows a mustache after the events in TftBL. Zer0 has mixed feelings about it.“So, you’re okay with it?” He said hopefully. He didn’t know what he’d do if Zer0 said no, but he knew he needed this change in his life to move forward. Zer0 seemed to sense this as he pulled Rhys in for a hug, something he didn’t do very often, and whispered, “I’m okay with you.” Which was just what Rhys needed to hear.





	Intervention

**Author's Note:**

> Mild spoilers for end of chapter 4 and 5 for Tales. First fic I've written in a while, but I needed to give Rhys the love he deserves.

As Helios had fallen, Rhys remembered looking at himself in the glass of the escape pod, and what he saw looking back was a monster. A man that tried to climb to the heights that Jack had reached years before, with no care for the bodies he left behind. After the fall, after the fight, after everything he looked at himself again in the mirror of his new home with a new arm and a new eye, but the same face. The face of the man who would’ve been Jack, and if Jack had had his way that would be the case literally.

When Rhys contacted Zer0 to take down the vault monster he was nervous, scared that the mysterious man, or being, would somehow know about what he had done. How he’d brought Handsome Jack back to Helios, and how he crashed it down, full of innocent, well, innocent enough, people. When Zer0 had arrived it was hard to tell what he was thinking, and he was quiet. That got easier in the years that followed.

With the vault monster defeated and the treasure recovered Rhys wanted to settle down, and Zer0 wanted to settle down too. They shared a place, Rhys running Atlas, building it back up to its former glory, and Zer0 taking on the missions and vaults from time to time, but otherwise helped out at the local animal shelter. They were happy, and eventually Rhys even got to see what was under the mask, and Zer0 listened when Rhys finally revealed the person he used to be. There had been uncertain moments, times when they wavered or spent time apart, but neither could deny how they felt around the other. A feeling of safety, understanding, and love.

Their friend groups had been slow to accept each other. Sasha, Fiona, and Vaughn were wary of the masked vigilante who had the tendency to speak in ominous haikus. But as they spent more time around him they saw that there was a soft heart under the layers of edge, and more importantly he cared about Rhys, even if he had trouble showing it. On the other side of things, the various vault hunters Zer0 associated with were sceptical that the former Hyperion lackey had really changed his tune, and if his seizing control of Atlas was a step in becoming the next Jack. Though they were often too busy to visit, when Zer0 spoke of him it was with softness, and often a longing to return to him soon. Eventually they started swinging by for games of Bunkers & Badasses or the occasional movie night, which, when combined with Rhys’ friends, could get very loud.

Overall they were happy, but Rhys still had trouble looking at himself in the mirror, and when your boyfriend literally wears a mask made of glass all the time that can be tough. Then one day someone at work said the fateful words; “Hey, I think a mustache would really suit you.”  
Rhys wasn’t the same after. At first he tried just not shaving for a few days, just to see how facial hair would suit him. It grew in light, he never had been the best with growing facial hair, hence why he stayed clean-shaven. 

At first Zer0 didn’t comment on it, though Rhys could tell he noticed the change. Then as more time passed and he started trying to carve out a mustache, Zer0 put his foot down. Which is to say he looked at Rhys’ new ‘style’ and slowly shook his head. Rhys didn’t know how to explain to Zer0 why he was doing this, and he knew the mustache did look rather silly, so he shaved it sullenly, thinking how if he had more time to grow a real one Zer0 wouldn’t be able to complain.

That opportunity came with Zer0 getting the news of a mission off planet that Lilith and Mordecai were going on. It’d take a couple weeks at least, so with some tearful goodbyes and “stay safe”s on both sides, Rhys took the first steps in his master plan. Although he missed Zer0 and worried about him everyday, Rhys didn’t want to video call him and ruin the surprise, so they stuck to late night ECHO calls and daily updates.

Rhys’ friends didn’t comment on the ‘stache whenever they saw him, at the very least they poked fun, asking if this was him coping with Zer0 not being home. Sasha and Fiona were certainly more critical than Vaughn, who didn’t get to have much say when it came to facial hair after that awful goatee thing he had a few years back, although he was more capable of growing a beard than Rhys. But Rhys paying for lunch always shut up that topic.

As the day Zer0 came home got closer, Rhys became more nervous about his reaction. Of course after all they’d been through Zer0 couldn’t get all that upset about Rhys trying something new with his look. And if he really didn’t like it he’d obviously tell him. So, needless to say, that when Zer0 walked through the door of they’re house and stared at Rhys for 5 minutes without saying anything, Rhys panicked a little.

“Heeey babe. Welcome home!” Rhys said in an overly cheery tone, hoping to snap Zer0 out of the haze he seemed to be in. It seemed to work, but when Zer0 did speak it was in a much slower intonation than usual.

“Your face has… changed some.  
It is… different than before.  
I am… very tired.”

Rhys was a bit taken aback, Zer0 was reserved, but he hadn’t been this vague in a while. He brushed it off, chuckling nervously and responding, “Oh, this? I just figured I’d try out something new y’know. Don’t want to look at the same face the rest of my life y’know?” Rhys was still laughing, in fact he was starting to laugh too much. Enough for Zer0 to snap out of his hazy state and gently grab Rhys looking him in the eyes, well, maybe, it’s hard to tell with him, and say,

“Rhys, it is alright.  
I am not upset about  
a mustache, okay?”

This calmed Rhys a bit. He wiped the tears that had started to form in his eyes during his hysterics and smiled.

“So, you’re okay with it?” He said hopefully. He didn’t know what he’d do if Zer0 said no, but he knew he needed this change in his life to move forward. Zer0 seemed to sense this as he pulled Rhys in for a hug, something he didn’t do very often, and whispered, “I’m okay with you.” Which was just what Rhys needed to hear.

However, as the months passed it was clear Zer0 still had mixed feelings about the mustache. Rhys figured it would just take time to get used to it, and Zer0 never said anything, so he must be fine with it. Rhys’ friends were… a bit more blunt about their feelings.

“It looks like a caterpillar crawled onto your face and died.”

“Fiona! It’s not that… okay it is that bad, but you don’t need to tell him!” The younger half of the von-artist duo responded, shooting Rhys an apologetic grin.

Rhys sighed, pressing his fingers against his furrowed brow.

“Thanks guys. Any thoughts from you, Vaughn?” Rhys says a bit more spitefully than he probably should. Vaughn shrinks, coughing a few times before saying, “Uh… what does Zer0 think about it?” 

Rhys freezes. He hadn’t thought much about that first night Zer0 had come home just a couple weeks ago. He feels a bit guilty, had Zer0 not said anything because of how Rhys reacted? Did he guilt Zer0 into silence by panicking? Surely Zer0 wouldn’t bottle up his feelings about it just for Rhys’ sake. Afterall, they had shared things with each other that would send most people running, it couldn’t be that big of an issue… right?

Rhys’ mind is changed, however, when 3 months later he comes home to Zer0 and his friends, along with a few Atlas employees, all gathered in the living room with concerned looks on their faces. Looks that are all pointed at him once he takes a few steps into the living room. It’s then that he notices that large banner hanging above the couch with the words ‘INTERVENTION’ scrawled on it in marker.

“Rhys… we need to talk.” Fiona’s voice draws his eyes back to the group of people gathered in his living room. He lets out a nervous laugh.

“What- what is all of this? What’s this about?” The sinking feeling in Rhys’ stomach gets worse as he notices them all staring pointedly at his face. No, it couldn’t be about the mustache. All this for something so small? Well, it’s not so small anymo- oh god it’s about the mustache. 

The realization hits Rhys like a truck. He stumbles to an armchair that’s facing his friends, his coworkers, and his husband, who are all looking at him with more concern than before.

“Rhys, bro, don’t worry, it’s not about anything serious. It’s just about the mustache!” Vaughn says helpfully, not realizing that Rhys already knows.  
“I… is- is it really that bad?” He says forlornly, looking at his friends with his signature puppy dog eyes.

“C’mon Rhys. You know it doesn’t look good. We’ve told you a million times. Even Zer0 doesn’t like it!” Fiona’s words cut like a knife through his heart. He turns his gaze to Zer0, the being he loves.

“Is that true, Zer0?” He manages to say without tearing up. Zer0 looks down.

“That hair upon your  
Face is like a thousand blades  
Going through my heart”

Zer0 says quietly. Rhys suddenly feels aware of the past few months in a new way. Zer0 trying to get him to go to a professional barber, leaving magazines with clean-shaven men on the cover on that coffee table that he would clearly never read, the razor on they’re bathroom sink every morning even when Rhys put it away the night before. Did Zer0 really not like it? And the whole time Rhys was blind to it, casting everything aside to coincidences. He looks around and everyone is still looking at him. It’s now or never. He heaves a deep sigh and starts to explain.

He talks about his old job, about his dreams, about who he wanted to be. He talks about Jack. The work he had put in to be the next Jack, hoping that modeling his appearance after his ex-idol he’d have a better chance of attaining his one goal in life, being the CEO of Hyperion, and more importantly, being just like Handsome Jack.

But then Jack, or the AI of Jack, turned on him. And he realized this whole time he was being used. And he ran, scared of Jack literally taking his body, his face, him. When he woke up in the remains of Helios, and he faced off against Jack, he had to make a decision. He had to destroy himself to take down Jack. Since then all he could see when he looked in the mirror was Jack, or at least a facsimile of him.

As he tells all this to his friends their expressions change, first the usual friendly eye rolls about his dreams of being Jack, something they all knew about, but soon they turned to expressions of concern, and sadness. Fiona and Zer0 knew about what he did to stop Jack, but Vaughn and Sasha never heard the full story. And clearly none of them knew how he felt afterwards, like a stranger in his own body.

Through all of it though, Zer0 was impossible to read. Over the years Rhys had learned to pick up on how Zer0 felt through things other than words and expression, like his body language. But right now Zer0 was completely still, unreadable. Then, he spoke.

“It hurts some that you  
Never told me this. But I  
Still love you, always”

With those words he flashes a heart symbol from his helmet, and does something he never did when friends were around. He stepped towards Rhys and pulled him from the chair into a tight hug, pressing his mask into the crook of his neck, which is about as close to kissing as he can get without the mask. Rhys stills for a moment, shocked about Zer0 showing and public affection, before melting into it, holding his husband closer than he has in a long time. 

“If you want me to shave it I-”

“No.”

“Okay”


End file.
